


Bond

by Nyrandrea



Series: The 2D AU Headboop Saga [6]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - 2D Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 09:59:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11941731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyrandrea/pseuds/Nyrandrea
Summary: Henry and Bendy's bond is brought to a whole new level when a familiar foe returns to finish what it started...





	Bond

The pure raw emotion that he felt was still surging through his body.

Henry kept an eye on his surroundings as he walked, narrowing his eyes as he half expected the walls to start warping or Sammy to come back from the dead and start attacking him at any given moment. He shook his head, he shouldn’t be thinking about that right now.

The older man was slowly making his way down what seemed to be yet another department in the studio, the building was so big and every room and corridor looked so similar to each other. Was he even going the right way anymore? He didn’t really know.

There were small rooms dotted about the corridors, Henry made sure to check each and every one in the hopes that there would be some kind of clue as to what had happened to the studio and more importantly, everyone in it. Some rooms held radios that played catchy tunes from the old cartoon show, Bendy had insisted that they stayed so that they could listen, making up an excuse that the songs might hold some kind of deep secret. Henry simply obliged, smiling whenever he saw the demon tapping his foot to the beat or hummed along to the music.

Other rooms held more significant items, the most important being small tapes that held voice recordings from other employees: Norman, Wally, Susie and…Sammy. Every time he heard the music director’s voice, it made him think back to that dream. The way that Sammy’s ink covered limbs were twisted, how out of proportion his arms and legs were, his impossibly angled head… 

_‘No…’ Henry thought. ‘Not now. I need to focus.’_

But his mind just kept wandering back to the bizarre dream, or rather, nightmare. The hideous monsters, the distorted studio, Sammy and…Bendy. He glanced a quick look at the little toon, who was sitting cross legged on the black line, happily chatting away about a gag that he and Boris had performed during an episode of the cartoon show.

The little demon looked so…different compared to what he had seen in his dreamscape, he was so big and… monstrous. But despite how terrifying he looked, he was still the same Bendy inside. But… he had never ever seen that kind of form before, not even when the devil had went completely crazy.

Then there was those intense sensations that suddenly went through him when he touched Bendy, along with those visions: The two figures at the ink machine, the clarinet, the large golden ring…what did it all mean? Maybe…

“…And then Boris tried to lure the sheep away with his clarinet! But I wasn’t havin’ none of that, so then I-“

“Bendy.” Henry hastily interrupted. He didn’t want to ruin the cartoon’s good mood, but he had to know if Bendy knew anything or rather…felt anything. Luckily the little demon didn’t seem to be annoyed at all at the sudden interruption.

“Huh? What’s up Henry? You feeling ok?” Bendy replied with a somewhat worried look.

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry.” Henry quickly said, not wanting to cause the toon any upset, God knows that he done that too many times already. Bendy sighed in relief and gestured for the man to continue.

“I was just wondering…” He started, not really knowing how to put this into words. “Back when you touched your head against mine…did you feel anything…weird? Like…any pain or…?” Henry cringed at his bad wording of the question, he honestly didn’t even know how to describe it.

Bendy looked down in deep thought for a few moments before looking back up to the human with a small frown.

“No…I didn’t really feel anything like that. Just relieved that ya were alright. Why? Did you feel pain? A-are ya alright?” The demon asked, a nervous tone in his voice.

Henry frowned in thought for a moment, before smiling calmly. “I’m fine Bendy, just must be old age catching up to me, nevermi-“ 

The older man’s eyes widened slightly in mild astonishment when he felt a surprisingly strong tug on his thumb. Looking down, he saw that Bendy had stood up and was currently grasping at it, holding it down in a defiant manner.

“Don’t lie to me, Henry.” The cartoon said, his tone of voice was firm, like he wasn’t prepared to take any more nonsense.

“What? Bendy, I’m not-“ Another tug. The devil gave him a sombre look.

“Please Henry…I’m begging ya…” Bendy replied in a more pleading manner. “I know that yer lyin’ to me, please don’t do that, ya gotta spit it out.” He looked down for a moment, before continuing. 

“Pals tell each other stuff, they don’t keep secrets.” Bendy said as he gave the human a determined look, who in return, was looking down at him with a rather perplexed expression.

“Bendy, I…” The man sighed, he was right, he shouldn’t be lying. But Henry was the proud type that never really shared his troubles, he mostly either dealt with them on the spot or brushed them off to the side if the situation was too dire to deal with it. He had been doing the latter a lot lately.

“Wait.” Henry started, raising an eyebrow at the small demon. “How can you be so sure that I’m lying?” He questioned, he wasn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets, but Bendy had never straight up called him out for it before.

The devil in question let go of Henry’s thumb and blinked in surprise, before shrugging and replying in a cheerful manner. “Dunno. I just do. Call it uh…” Bendy paused for thought before snapping his fingers and pointing up at the man with a smirk. 

“Intuition!” He exclaimed, looking very pleased with himself.

Henry simply gave the toon an amused look. “Right…” He looked back forward with a small frown.

There had to be more to it than that. Bendy seemed so…sure, like he absolutely knew without a doubt that the older man was hiding something. Maybe it had something to do with the…thing that he felt. Did Bendy feel it too? It was like they were…somehow linked…

But before Henry could get too deep into his thoughts, Bendy’s voice piped back up, catching his attention once again.

“So how’s the leg, Henry? Ya don’t seem to be limping as much as before.” Bendy said with a joyful grin. “Do ya think it’s healed up now?” Henry chuckled.

“Well, I don’t know about 'healed up’ but…” He tested the injured leg out, walking on it without the axe crutch, and smiled when he seemed to manage quite a few steps before leaning on the axe’s handle again. “I think it’s getting there though, bud.”

The little demon’s face immediately lit up, his grin growing even bigger as he clasped his gloved hands together. “Oh Henry, that’s great! You’ll be better in no time at all!” 

“Yeah…” The man simply replied with a small relaxed smile. Bendy really knew how to keep him motivated, even in the most dire of situations, he was an absolute Godsend in this Hell of a studio, ironic as that may seemed.

The light mood was suddenly cut though, as a clanking sound from above immediately caught both of their attention.

“…Henry…?” Bendy nervously whispered, glancing up in fear.

The older man narrowed his eyes and stopped walking, cautiously glancing around as the sound stopped, leaving silence to engulf the area once more. Henry didn’t dare to move yet though, he knew there was something here with them, he could sense it.

So could Bendy apparently, as the little toon quickly grasped onto his thumb and tugged it in a panicked frenzy.

“Henry! We gotta move! It’s-!”

A loud moaning from the pipes cut him off, and their gazes quickly shot up to the ceiling. Ink oozed and dripped from the pipes, creating a small puddle on the floor, just in front of Henry’s feet. The black liquid bubbled and grew larger as splodges of ink dropped down, the man didn’t even waste any time on waiting to see what was going to sprout out from the puddle and hopped over it to run away as fast as he possibly could. He already knew what it was.

Or rather, who it was.

A loud, ear piercing screech sounded out from behind him, urging the man to try and move faster. 

_'How the Hell did that thing manage to find us so fast?!’_ Henry angrily thought as he limped as fast as he possibly could.

Although his injured leg was nearly healed, it still slowed him down a considerable amount. But unlike the dreamscape, 'Bendy’s twisted leg was also a huge hindrance to it.

The difference between him and it though, was that the creature had grown used to it’s deformed limb, and had adapted to the environment a lot longer than he had, giving it the clear advantage.

Henry suddenly felt a shot of fear go through him, but it didn’t feel like his own, not to say that he wasn’t afraid, he was just more suppressed about it. No, this was pure, unfiltered terror. The man looked down at Bendy, who’s face was frozen in dread, the little cartoon looked like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Bendy? Bendy, listen to me.” Henry urged, in between breaths. “You have to snap out of it, bud. Please!” 

The toon simply kept staring ahead, quietly muttering. Another scream sounded out from behind, much louder and closer this time.

“Bendy!” Henry shouted, his voice was quickly drowned out from a distorted screech.

“Shit!” He swore as he stopped and turned on his heels, readying his axe to face the monster head on. There was no way he was going to be able to outrun this thing, so there was no choice in the matter but to fight it, injured leg be damned. The ink creature leapt towards the human with his gloved claws fully protracted, while Henry raised his axe to strike.

His eyes widened though when he felt a sudden stinging pain in the back of his head, the instinct to protect washed over him like a wave, the piece of paper in his hand suddenly lurched.

_**“NO!”** _ A deep and distorted voice suddenly screamed out as a large black shape literally leaped out from the paper with sheer force, sending Henry flying to the floor.

He landed with a thud, and held his head as he felt a swirl of emotions go straight through him, the two most prominent being fear and rage. It made his mind spin with confliction, making him feel extremely dizzy, he had to fight the overwhelming urge to throw up.

A pain induced screech filled the hallway as the large black shape collided with the creature, sending it crashing to the ground. Henry slowly sat up while still clutching his head, and looked up to see Bendy hovering over him, his back arched and large body covering him to prevent the other monster from getting any kind of view of the man.

“Bendy…how…how are you…?” Henry stammered, his eyes as wide as saucers. Bendy had never been able to just…leap out of the page like that before. The demon always needed some kind of living ink to draw upon in order to physically form outside of the paper. 

_‘This…How the Hell is this even possible…?’_ The older man internally questioned, holding his still pounding head.

'Bendy’ managed to finally stand up properly, after having a bit of difficulty with it’s twisted leg, and hissed at them both, to which the larger and much bulkier Bendy replied with a low and deep snarl. The demon kept his stance and raised one of his large, dripping arms off the ground slightly, as if he was threatening the smaller creature to back off. The thinner monster simply hissed back and splayed it’s long, thin claws, getting ready to strike. Henry could easily tell what was about to happen, and knew all to well that he had to get out of the way if he didn’t want to get caught in the middle.

Bendy seemed to catch onto this thought as well as Henry suddenly felt a large hand slowly and gently push him to the side, the demon moved directly in front of him while doing so in order to completely block the other creature’s sight of him, which resulted in a snap reaction, as it suddenly roared and charged for him. 

The two monsters clashed against each other, sending ink flying everywhere. Bendy tried to grab the slippery creature as it climbed onto his body and started to rake it’s needle-like claws into his back, causing him howl out in pain. It’s sadistic grin grew wider as it kept slashing and hacking away, but the smile was soon wiped away as it was suddenly rammed into the wall, making it let out a pained screech. Bendy slammed his body into the wood in order to try and get the lanky monster off of him, but it’s claws were dug in so deep that it managed to just about hang on. 

Henry stared dumbfounded as the two monsters kept roughly scrapping with each other, it was like watching two feral animals fight to the death, it was…it was awful.

He looked up and cringed as the walls around them groaned in protest at the sudden weight being thrown into them, the building was going to collapse around them if this kept up, and Bendy was clearly having a tough time, he had to try and help get that thing off of him.

Henry slowly stood up, his injured leg trembled and ached in protest as he did, the sudden running and falling to the ground had done a bit of a number on the injury, setting back the healing process yet again, but he had no time to dwell on that now. 

The older man grabbed onto his axe and used the wall as a support as he raised the weapon into the air. He only had one shot at this, he had to make it count.

It was extremely difficult to aim though as the two ink monsters wouldn’t stay still for a single moment, Bendy kept turning on the spot, trying to reach behind him to grab the smaller creature while it kept clambering around his body, using it’s clawed hands as climbing picks. It didn’t help the fact that ink kept flying everywhere, obstructing his view. It was so damn hard to focus.

_'C'mon…I just need an opening…!’_ He frustratingly thought as he tried to zone in on the smaller monster. 

Bendy suddenly turned towards Henry and nodded with a determined look, before turning his back to the man in order to expose the smaller demon, making it look around in a confused manner at the sudden movement. 

The human blinked in confusion as well. 

_'How did he know to…?’_ Henry shook his head, this wasn’t the time to be questioning anything. He flung the axe towards 'Bendy’ and struck it right in the head, making it scream and clutch at it’s injury, resulting in it slipping off and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. 

It pulled the axe out, spraying the floor and walls with black liquid, and slowly turned it’s injured head towards Henry, growling lowly.

The human had no time to react as it charged for him with it’s claws out, the stinging pain in his head suddenly peaked, the underlying rage that he had been feeling came out at full force, there was so much going on that all that Henry could do was freeze in terror.

A booming roar sounded out as an enormous, jet black clawed hand struck out and slammed 'Bendy’ down before it could get anywhere near the man.

He watched with wide eyes as the creature shrieked and writhed under the claws that pinned it down, he swallowed a large lump in his throat as he felt a raw and primal instinct take over him, the impulsive urge to tear something apart ate away at his mind, he felt like he was going to be physically sick again.

The hand dragged 'Bendy’ back and threw it across the hallway, Henry gazed up to see a large black shape looming over him. Sure enough, it was Bendy, but his usually goofy grin was now a fang filled, sadistic looking sneer. His fingers were as sharp as knives, his horns had grown slightly deformed, and the once rounded white pupil in his eye was now a tiny thin slit.

It had happened again, Bendy had lost control.

Henry kept his breathing shallow as Bendy stared down at him, he didn’t dare to make any sudden movements, he knew that his friend was unstable in this form, and the last thing that he wanted to do was provoke him. But as the beast looked directly into his eyes, he felt it again, the trust, the overwhelming urge to protect. 

Was…was Bendy still somehow in control?

A loud shriek caught their attention, interrupting Henry’s thoughts, as the other 'Bendy’ prowled back over towards them both with it’s claws out, it’s limp was much more obvious than before though, indicating that it was weakened, maybe even injured. But it still looked as though it was up for a fight, as it hissed lowly in a threatening manner.

Bendy turned his back to Henry and growled back in a much more distorted and deeper tone than before and arched his back, the rising droplets of ink on his shoulders flared furiously, his claws dug deep into the floor, making the wood creak.

 The two creatures stared in silence for a heartbeat before yet another fight ensued, this time Bendy being the first to attack.

The scuffle didn’t last nearly as long as the last fight though as Bendy completely wrecked the creature this time. He didn’t even give it a chance to try any kind of futile attempt to attack, and after a few moments of hitting it around, he swiped it away, sending the creature crashing to the wooden floor. Henry felt a feeling of satisfaction flow through him, and looked up at Bendy to see a smug grin on the demon’s face. 

The smaller monster whined in pain and wasted no time in retreating, as it dissolved into a black puddle and seeped through the cracks of the floorboards before any finishing blow could be made, resulting in an aggravated growl from Bendy.

It had escaped once again.

Henry simply blinked and breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned against the wall. The immediate danger was gone, at least. But he still felt the rage inside him gradually build up, and glanced back up at Bendy, extremely nervous at the fact that he was growing more unstable by the minute. To say that the demon was seething was a severe understatement.

No, he was absolutely livid.

The older man had to cover his ears as Bendy let out an ear-splitting roar and started attacking everything that was around him in a wild frenzy. He crushed the few tables and chairs that were in the area and launched them at the walls, before angrily swiping at the pipes that were on the ceiling, his claws cleanly sliced them, sending ink spilling everywhere, it was pretty surprising that no Searchers formed from the liquid, perhaps they knew to stay away from the danger.

Henry kept a hand on his head and clenched his eyes shut as he felt an extremely powerful mixture of nothing but negative emotions swirl around in his mind: anger, shame, grief, bitterness, insecurity…there was so many. 

By this point, he was absolutely positive that this had everything to do with his nightmare, it must have formed some kind of…connection between them, somehow. He knew that these horrible thoughts was what Bendy was feeling right now, and that he had to calm the raging demon down, one way or another.

He took a deep breath and tried to mentally suppress the chaos that he felt, maybe if he calmed the emotions down within himself, then Bendy would also feel a little better.

The older man felt a twinge of something, and opened his eyes to see Bendy staring right at him with a still slightly crazed look, the remains of a destroyed chair in his clawed hand. Henry swallowed, if he didn’t play this right, he was probably going to end up getting crushed himself…

_'No…’_ Henry internally scowled at himself. _‘He wouldn’t do that. Not after all the crap we’ve been through together. I can do this.’_

Bendy halfheartedly threw the wooden debris in his hand to the side, and growled as he quickly made his way towards Henry. He stopped right in front of the human and snarled ferociously into his face, before raising an enormous clawed hand to strike him down.

_‘It’s now or never…’_ Henry determinedly thought as he quickly reached up to lay a gentle hand on the monster’s face, just next to his widened eye.

The demon’s clawed hand stopped and hovered in mid-air.

“You’re alright, Bendy…” Henry coaxed softly, still trying to suppress the horrible thoughts that kept piercing his mind. “It’s ok now… you don’t need to fight anymore, we’re safe…” The man said with a small sympathetic smile. He suddenly felt himself become exhausted, but he kept soothing the large demon.

The emotions started to die down as Bendy made a confused sound. His horns simplified in shape, his fangs and claws softened and the white slit that was his pupil rounded up again. 

Henry breathed a sigh of relief. His friend was back once more, and his aching head had subsided for now.

Bendy looked up at his raised arm in confusion, before looking back down at Henry, he seemed to put two and two together swiftly as big black tears suddenly welled up in his eye. Henry was quick to comfort him however, as he started rubbing the side of the monster’s head in an affectionate manner. The tears rolled off of Bendy’s cheek and dripped down Henry’s hand and arm, staining them, but at this point he didn’t even mind.

“No, no…don’t worry, you didn’t attack me this time, bud. You’re gaining more control over that form of yours, you did real good…ok?” Henry softly said as he tried to ease the large demon, who lowered his head and whined. 

The man felt himself get pulled in for a gentle embrace, which he gladly returned.

“Yeah, everything is alright…” He soothed. As they hugged, Henry suddenly felt a sort of serenity wash over his mind, which was certainly a nice change from the fear and dread that he had felt just moments before.

But the moment was short lived as he noticed that Bendy was becoming increasingly heavier, and looked up to see that the devil had his eye closed and was letting out a soft snoring sound, making the older man chuckle.

As amusing as it was though, Henry had to wake him up before he was going to accidentally get crushed.

“Uh…Bendy…?” No response came from the monster, so he tried gently tapping his cheek. “C’mon bud…I know you need to rest but…not on me, please.” He half joked, honestly not wanting to have to try and move a huge sleeping ink demon, he was too tired to move himself to be quite frank.

Bendy finally responded to him and broke up the embrace, leaving the poor man drenched with black ink, the demon grinned amusedly at the sight before letting out a tired yawn. Henry smiled as he picked up his axe and had a look around.

“Well, we should probably get some rest. But not out here, it’s too…open.” It felt a little ironic saying that in an enclosed building. “We should look for one of those small rooms, there should probably be one down-“

Henry felt an arm wrap around him and lift him up, he looked up at Bendy, who had already started to move. The monster grinned cheerfully and nodded, seemingly knowing where to go without Henry really having to say. Henry blinked, this whole…connection thing was really difficult to comprehend.

But right now he was far too exhausted to even question it, so he simply let Bendy carry him to a small room that held storyboards for the old cartoon show, black ink was splattered all over the cheerful drawings. It was a sad sight.

 Bendy gently set Henry down onto the floor before completely dissolving into a black puddle, the older man picked up the piece of paper and set it on his knee as he sat his back against the wall. 

He simply smiled when he saw that the little toon was already completely passed out.

“Sleep tight, bud…” 

It didn’t take that long before Henry felt his eyelids drop in sheer tiredness as well, he only prayed that he would, for once, have a peaceful few hours of sleep. He and Bendy deserved that much, at the very least.

**Author's Note:**

> I really liked the whole bond concept that ShinyZango touched upon and wanted to explore it a l'il bit!
> 
> Let me know what y'all think!


End file.
